If you are reading this message, you are probably doing so on a device that plays music. You are probably able to hear and perceive that music and you probably can also produce music of your own, even if you’ve never had music lessons. You are probably motivated to engage with music on a regular basis, regardless of your cultural background, location in the world, or socioeconomic status. You have probably been this way your whole life.

In the Music Lab, we’re figuring out why the human mind is designed in such a way that all of the above is true. We do basic science, running experiments with typically developing people of all ages and in populations with genetic conditions. We focus in particular on infancy and on people who live in isolated small-scale societies around the world. We also work on large corpus studies of ethnographies and field recordings from the Natural History of Song project and use those data in large-scale online experiments.

This is a highly competitive scheme, with excellent support, open to students from any country. Interested students must express interest by 21 July (20 July in the Western hemisphere due to time differences). To learn more and to express interest visit:

A two-year post-doctoral position in Cultural Evolution and Social Cognition is currently open at the Département d’Etudes Cognitives (DEC) of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. This project will be conducted in collaboration with Nicolas Baumard at the Institut Jean Nicod (IJN) and Julie Grèzes at the Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives (LNC).

Please send a complete CV, a 2-pages cover letter and contact information of two references by March 15th to nicolas.baumard@ens.fr and julie.grezes@ens.fr, and feel free to contact us for more information!

A postdoctoral position is available at Chapman University in Orange, CA for a project utilizing interdisciplinary approaches to generate new insights to solve key problems in maternal-child health. The postdoctoral fellow will have the opportunity to develop and test novel hypotheses pertaining to maternal-child health in collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook (project PI) and members of Chapman’s Center for Excellence in Biopsychosocial Approaches to Health (CEBAH).

The ideal candidate would bring unique expertise and perspectives from biological anthropology, Darwinian medicine, health psychology, evolutionary psychology, public health, endocrinology or other fields to formulate and test interdisciplinary research questions. The postdoctoral fellow will have the opportunity to work with large existing NIH funded data sets that contain longitudinal data assessing biomarkers, hormones, psychosocial factors, ecological conditions, behavior and health outcomes in mothers, children, and fathers followed from pregnancy to the postpartum period. The postdoctoral fellow will also interface with local government and private stakeholders in an effort to create translational community-based interventions to improve maternal-child health. Read more

Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership will be awarding 36 studentships per year to social scientists carrying out PhD studies, or Masters + PhD studies at its three partner institutions, including the Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Portsmouth. Our first intake of funded students will be in the 2017/18 Academic Year.

In addition to covering the cost of all programme fees, those in receipt of a South Coast DTP studentship award will also receive an annual maintenance grant of £14,482 (2017/18 RCUK rate). South Coast DTP PhD students will also have access to additional funds for carrying out fieldwork, purchasing essential equipment and attending relevant conferences.

As part of the continued growth of Psychology provision at Liverpool, we wish to appoint two Lecturers who have experience of contributing to successful taught undergraduate and/or postgraduate programmes. You will have extensive teaching experience in cognitive/forensic/social occupational psychology, delivered at all levels, and be fully conversant with external regulatory and professional accreditation processes, as well as more local quality assurance processes. You should have a degree (2:1 or above) in Psychology or a related discipline and have (or be about to obtain) a PhD in Psychology. You will also have experience of undertaking and publishing research of at least a national standing, and/or have attained similar status in pedagogical research and the development of innovative learning and teaching strategies.

The Cognitive Science Program at Indiana University Bloomington has multiple five-year graduate student fellowships available to study the evolution of human cognition. Research areas include cognitive aspects of human technological and behavioral evolution, evolution of expertise, evolution of the human brain, language evolution, and how evolved minds create and navigate cultural spaces. Training opportunities include experimental archaeology and fieldwork, brain imaging and fMRI, computational modeling and simulation, and other aspects of cognitive science. An interdisciplinary seminar with frequent visiting experts and international workshops and outreach are also part of this initiative. Applications are due by December 1, 2016. To apply, go to http://cogs.indiana.edu/graduate/cogevadmissions.php .

Please get in touch with Lynda Boothroyd (l.g.boothroyd@durham.ac.uk), who is the final year of a Leverhulme DTC on visual culture and is very keen to secure one of these studentships for a project on visual culture and body/face ideals. There would be options to do work in the UK or potentially something fieldwork based in their Nicaraguan fieldsite exploring the link between TV access and ideals further. Applicants must have UK/EU nationality and hold or be taking a Masters degree. Applications due 20 January 2017 for an October 2017 start.